If you haven’t heard of Phoebe Waller-Bridge than you obviously haven’t seen Fleabag.
And if you haven’t watched Fleabag yet, then we suggest that hop to your Amazon Prime account quick smart and watch both seasons of this incredibly good show. (Proof? It picked up the 2020 Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy and last year, Waller-Bridge won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series).
So, with this in mind, it’s no wonder that James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, specifically asked for the talented writer and actor to “polish” up the script for No Time to Die.
Appearing on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show recently, the 34-year-old clarified exactly what she did for the script, including “dialogue polishes” and “different alternatives”.
“They did give me some scenes and then be like, ‘Can you write some alternatives for this or have another look at an idea about where it could go in the middle or how it would end?’,” she revealed.
Before saying that she would give them options and various scenes, which “they would take what they want”.
Waller-Bridge also stressed that there were “a lot of people writing” including director Cary Fukunaga and that there’d been a few writers before.
“It’s a big sort of melting pot of everybody’s ideas the whole time,” she said, before admitting that she was “constantly” talking to Craig about the script.
In another interview with Deadline, she addressed the issue of whether James Bond was still relevant “because of who he is and the way he treats women.”
“I think that’s bollocks. I think he’s absolutely relevant now,” she said.
“It has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn’t have to. He needs to be true to this character.”
While writing for Bond (and being a personal friend of Craig) is cool enough, Waller-Bridge is also the franchise’s second-ever female writer — following in the footsteps of Johanna Harwood who worked on the very first film, Dr No.
According to reports, the Fleabag actor was reportedly paid $2 million USD for her contributions to the film.
WATCH: A behind-the-scenes look at No Time To Die.